Gov. Andrew Cuomo says he was "shocked" to learn 28 top officers in the state police got raises of more than $20,000 last month as some 900 state workers were facing layoffs.Frank Franklin II/AP

ALBANY — Gov. Cuomo expressed “shock” not once but three times yesterday after The Post’s disclosed that 28 State Police brass secretly received huge wage increases last month amid the state’s worsening fiscal crisis.

“I was surprised and I was shocked, as I think most New Yorkers were,” said Cuomo, who cut his own pay and that of many of his top aides five percent after taking office last week.

“I think it’s insensitive. That why I was surprised and that’s why I was shocked and that’s why I’m reviewing it,” Cuomo continued.

“Surprise and shock,” he said at another point.

Cuomo said he had ordered a review of the pay hikes with an eye towards rolling them back.

The Post disclosed yesterday that the entire top echelon of the scandal-scarred State Police received pay hikes as high as 18 percent in December, even as then-Gov. Paterson warned of a $9 billion budget gap and was about to fire 900 state workers.

The raises totaled nearly $600,000 and were authorized by acting State Police Supt. John Melville, who received a $20,394-a-year hike to $179,756.

The post of first deputy superintendent, which was filled Jan. 4 by Cuomo’s nominee to head the State Police, Joseph D’Amico, received the largest salary hike, $28,077, bringing the annual pay to $182,756.

But an aide to Cuomo told The Post that D’Amico, who is awaiting Senate confirmation, was unaware of the pay hike and would instead take the far lower legally-set salary paid to a State Police superintendent, $136,000-a-year.

State Police officials justified the pay hikes by claiming a newly negotiated contract with the force’s Supervisors Unit increased salaries of police majors to an amount equal to or higher than the pay received by their supervisors.

Assistant Deputy Superintendent Terence O’Mara claimed that the salary difference would make it difficult to promote majors to higher positions “without undue hardship to those personnel who have shown they possess the best qualities of leadership . . . “

But many top state officials — commissioners and other heads of agencies — routinely make less than their deputies.

The State Police’s reputation has recently suffered from a range of scandals including Troopergate, when investigators were used to gather supposedly damaging information on former Gov. Spitzer’s political foe, and the David Johnson/Sherr-Una Booker affair, when the chief of Paterson’s security detail attempted to prevent a Bronx hospital worker from filing assault charges against a Paterson aide.

The new governor said he’ll review the increases, which were requested by the police agency after a union agreement bumped some majors to $170,756 salaries, topping executive staff pay.

The executive raises boost staff inspectors to $173,756 yearly and the first deputy superintendent to $182,756 with assistant deputy and deputy superintendents in between.

“I was surprised and shocked,” Cuomo said, questioning raises at a time when others faced layoffs. “We’re going to be reviewing it today.”

In a letter to the state Budget Division, Assistant Deputy Police Superintendent Terence O’Mara said “the salary inequality” in the paramilitary organization needed to be fixed to support the chain of command. “This chain only remains functional with the ability of the superintendent to appoint the most competent and experienced personnel to his executive staff.”

Promoting the best leaders to lower-paying jobs “will be viewed as less than an acknowledgment of a job well done and more as a punishment for possessing desired leadership skills,” O’Mara wrote.

The governor’s office said Joseph D’Amico, who is nominated to become superintendent, would take a salary of $136,000 in the new job and forgo his pension from the New York City police department. He is currently first deputy superintendent, awaiting Senate confirmation, and is already taking the lower pay, Cuomo spokesman John Milgrim said.

A former NYPD deputy chief, D’Amico was chief investigator for Cuomo when he was state attorney general.

Cuomo, Lt. Gov. Robert Duffy and five top aides all immediately took 5 percent pay cuts from their predecessors’ salaries. Cuomo’s giveback amounted to $8,950 of the $179,000 governor’s salary, which was set by law in 1999.

Saying New York families have learned to do more with less to live within their means, Cuomo said the government has to do the same. He has proposed a pay freeze for the state’s nearly 200,000 employees to help deal with an expected budget deficit of nearly $10 billion.

About 900 New York state workers received formal layoff notices last month effective Dec. 31. Then-Gov. David Paterson said he was forced to resort to that because union leaders refused to give any concessions that would save the state $250 million toward the deficit.